Spear Wielding Chimps Go Hunting

Spear wielding chimps go hunting, according to a report in BBC News, 22 February 2007 and Science News 3 March 2007. Researchers in Senegal have observed chimpanzees making spears from tree branches and then using them to hunt monkeys. The chimps broke branches off trees and trimmed the leaves and bark. Some also sharpened one end using their teeth. They then used these to prise small monkeys, such as bush babies, from hollows in trees. The hunting behaviour was mainly seen in females and young chimps, rather than older males. The researchers suggest this is because young chimps spend more time with their mothers and learn from them. The researchers concluded that their findings "support a theory that females may have played a similarly important role in the evolution of tool technology among early humans."

Editorial Comment: The idea that chimps’ behaviour explains human behaviour does not even make sense in evolutionary terms. Why should the behaviour of chimps, who lived in a forest, have any influence on supposed human ancestors out evolving on the savannah? The real significance of these observations is that they shows how far from being happy, friendly, almost human vegetarians, chimpanzees are large dangerous animals. These chimps’ behaviour is evidence that Bible is right when it says the whole earth has become affected by the conflict and corruption which has passed onto all creation as a result of man's fall into sin and the consequent degeneration of the world that has affected all animals, chimps included. (Romans 8:20)(Ref. apes, diet, behaviour)